College trustee says he still represents Fremont

Greg Bonaccorsi says he values his seat on the Ohlone College board of trustees so highly that he's been willing to spend most nights away from his wife and young daughter to keep it.

Bonaccorsi represents Fremont on the community college board, but two months ago, he and his wife, who are still happily married, sold their Fremont home. She rented a house in Newark, and Bonaccorsi, to keep his seat, which includes free health insurance, rented a room 10 miles away in Fremont.

The arrangement has raised eyebrows at the college, where just last month another trustee, Nick Nardolillo, resigned after a Bay Area News Group investigation revealed that he had lived outside the district for more than a decade at his Livermore winery.

Bonaccorsi put an end to speculation that he might run for re-election next year as a Newark resident or seek an appointment to one of the district's two Newark seats if Ohlone Board President Rich Watters gets appointed to a vacant seat on the Newark City Council.

"I won't run as a Newark trustee," said Bonaccorsi, sitting in the kitchen of his Fremont rental. "I can't imagine how that would be acceptable to the Newark community."

Bonaccorsi, who grew up in Fremont and teaches science at a Fremont middle school, says he spends five nights a week to maintain legal residency at the south Fremont home on Klamath Place, where he is renting a room from a colleague for $400 a month.

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His wife, Diane, signed a separate lease with her brother to rent a co-worker's three-bedroom home on Tourraine Drive in Newark for $1,500 a month -- lower rent than every three-bedroom Newark home listed over the past week on Craigslist.

Asked why they didn't rent a single home together in Fremont, Bonaccorsi said the Newark home presented an economic opportunity and that they might be able to buy it.

"It was a difficult thing to do," he said. "But I really believe I should complete my term as a Fremont resident."

Bonaccorsi receives $3,500 a year as an Ohlone trustee. Ohlone also provides the family's health insurance, which this year will amount to more than $19,000, according to the school. Getting his insurance through Ohlone also allows Bonaccorsi to keep the $5,109 a year Fremont teachers get toward their insurance coverage.

Unlike Nardolillo, there are no legal documents pointing to Bonaccorsi living anywhere other than Fremont.

Bonaccorsi said he and his wife haven't figured out their future living arrangement. The family could rent a home together in Fremont, but Bonaccorsi also left open the possibility that he would run for a second term with them continuing to live apart. "The only certainty is that I'm here now," he said.